1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a furniture balancing apparatus for providing a leveling affect to uneven furniture pieces or uneven floor surfaces supporting furniture pieces; and more particularly to a table/furniture balancing pad wherein a biscuit is integrated with a flexible stabilization cushion forming an outer perimeter shelf, so that the cushion compresses and deforms under the weight of the furniture and operates in concert with the outer perimeter shelf to level and stabilize the furniture piece.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Irregular floor or support surfaces, as well as the wear and/or other damage to furniture leg supports over time, often produces instability and wobbling of a furniture piece. Instability and unwanted wobbling of the furniture piece is annoying, and can contribute to accidents or injuries, such as those occasioned by hot liquid spills or when a furniture piece tips over. Structural damage to furniture can also result when uneven leg support effects uneven distribution of weight on parts of the furniture. Marring, scratching or wearing of a floor surface frequently results from continued use of an uneven furniture piece.
Various devices have been employed in attempts to level the furniture pieces, including simple objects such as match books, napkins, and the like. These devices tend to be temporary fixes and that are generally unsightly.
Other attempts to level furniture pieces have involved devices which must be fixedly attached to the furniture leg and/or the floor. Such devices are cumbersome to install and are unattractive. For example: U.S. Pat. No. 1,741,487 to Vance discloses readily stackable floor plates comprising a body of sheet metal having holes punched therethrough for securing the plates to the floor. A plurality of projecting buttons or lugs hold an angle iron leg in place on each plate. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0163894 to Jones et al. discloses a self-leveling glide assembly including a glide housing appointed to be attached to a bottom of a furniture leg.
Still other leveling devices are appointed to be slid under an uneven leg of a furniture piece. These devices are typically constructed as wedges. They do not discretely blend with the furniture piece and can appear unattractive. For example: U.S. Pat. No. 3,030,730 to Costar discloses a leg height adjuster including a pair of identical wedges that mate with one another to provide height adjustment thereto, with each wedge having a frusta-spherical concavity so that the top wedge holds a bearing head of a leg while the bottom wedge suctions to the floor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,320 to Bellows discloses a wedge-shaped device adapted to stabilize an article of furniture formed with upper and lower surfaces having a plurality of transverse rib teeth. U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,767 to Mellen discloses a table leveling wedge having a cavity in the top surface thereof to confine a table glide therein. These wedge-type balancing devices must be wedged under the leg. They tend to appear rather unsightly and obtuse, jetting out from under the leg being supported. Moreover, the wedges are generally rigid in construct.
Some platforms or pads utilized to level furniture do not provide flexibility; but rather are rigid. U.S. Pat. No. 133,766 to Easterly discloses foot-platforms having a primary platform composed of cast metal. A central holding-surface, which may be flat, concave, or convex, has a ledge for confining the foot on a leg. The rigidity of the pad can cause the uneven leg to become higher than the other legs. This further contributes to the unevenness, as the pad itself cannot conform to the desired height adjustment. Even where rigid pads have provided for height adjustment, these devices are cumbersome to adjust and impractical for many uses. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,725,499 to Wetzel discloses an adjustable leveling device for scales. A supporting bar is adapted to be secured at each end to a circular disk-like member by means of screws. The rigidity of these platforms not only presents placement issues (i.e. height adjustability), but additionally causes the platforms to be highly visible and unsightly.
Even where flexible pads and the like have been provided, many of these pads involve constructs with a cavity surrounded by narrow side walls appointed to hold the leg in place. Many of these pads do not function to level a piece of furniture, but are merely shoes for covering the leg cap of the furniture, presumably to prevent the cap from scratching the floor. For example: U.S. Pat. No. 1,912,728 to Roe discloses a furniture support composed of a rubber material comprised of walls and a floor that is sloped to yield a depressed central point so that the central point does not contact the leg held by the support; U.S. Design Pat. No. D044996 to Buser discloses an ornamental design for a show or protecting tip for furniture-legs; U.S. Design Pat. No. D340638 to Campbell discloses an ornamental design for a furniture leg shoe design; and U.S. Design Pat. No. D513583 to Chase discloses an ornamental design for a furniture leg cap. Any leg appointed to be supported by these devices must be of a specific size and shape to fit properly within the cavity of the device. The side walls result in the inability to utilize the device when the leg does not fit perfectly within the confines thereof, otherwise the leg would be resting solely on the walls and the floor would not be supporting the leg whatsoever. As a result, the walls would eventually give way and buckle.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,661 to Chernack discloses a stabilizing device having a first envelope formed of a pair of substantially rectangular sheet-like members joined along marginal edges, with a second envelope or bladder housed therein that is fabricated of a preferably elastically or otherwise resiliently deformable material within which a filler material is contained. This device does not include walls in general, and is merely a circular, egg shaped device appointed to deform under the weight of the furniture. However, due to the curved nature of the bottom of the device, the device can easily roll out from under the leg during insert, and may become dislodged as the leg is being placed down onto the structure. Moreover, the circular shape causes the overall thickness (i.e. diameter) of the device to be greater than would be accomplished with a thin disk, and so the furniture piece must be lifted higher to advance clearance for insertion.
Other types of pads for furniture pieces involve sliders appointed to be placed under the legs of a furniture piece for ease in sliding the furniture along a floor surface. These types of devices are not appointed for leveling the furniture piece, and are appointed for generally temporary use during moving. For example: U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,740 to Smith discloses a reconfigurable slide for supporting furniture being moved having an inflexible slide cup with sides extending upward and an inner surface appointed for accommodating a removable slide cup insert composed of closed-cell rubber and having a flat upper surface; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,818 to Bushey discloses a floor glide for moving furniture across a floor comprised of a concavo-convex sheet of material, such as disk, and a resilient adhesive pad located therein. These slides are large relative to a furniture leg to provide greater weight distribution for ease in moving the furniture piece. Generally, the inflexible slide cup is composed of a rigid of slippery material, and the cup insert has a flat upper surface which collapses around a furniture leg placed thereon to provide resistance. The leg of the furniture piece is placed within the cup and rests against the insert; the sides and the insert of the cup are appointed to prevent the leg from sliding from the cup and do not bear weight rather than to support the leg, as any weight bearing on the cup walls would likely cause them to collapse. In any event, these devices are large in size so as to provide greater weight distribution and visa vie easier movement of the furniture piece. As a result, they would be quite unsightly and impractical for use when attempting to level the furniture piece.
Notwithstanding the efforts of prior art workers to construct devices for leveling uneven furniture pieces, there remains a need in the art for a thin resilient, flexible furniture balancing pad that can be readily slid under an uneven leg with minimum lifting clearance. In addition, there exists an art recognized need for a table balancing pad having a flexible stabilizing cushion that deforms upon placement of a leg base. Moreover, there is a need in the art for a table balancing pad wherein an outer perimeter area substantially surrounds the flexible stabilizing cushion so that weight from the furniture piece is distributed on the cushion and the surrounding perimeter, allowing the pad to be readily slid under the uneven leg of a chair, table, or stool to provide immediate relief for the instability problem.